Ortega, who has a green card, is a permanent U.S. resident but not a citizen eligible for voting. In 2014, according to the appeals court ruling, she submitted a voter registration form and indicated that she is not a citizen. Her application to vote was rejected. She called the office and asked why, and they told her that it was because she had checked “No” on the citizenship question; so she resubmitted the form and checked “Yes.” The office then registered her to vote.
...she was allowed to vote due to bureaucratic error, even after she plainly said she was not a citizen. When investigators came to see her, she told them this. In January 2016, she was arrested. Last year, she was tried, convicted by a Texas jury, and sentenced to eight years in prison. Now, that conviction has been upheld. The office of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton proudly announced this fact in a press release. They prominently state that they offered Ortega a plea deal, but “Instead, she voluntarily chose a jury trial.”
Rosa Maria Ortega is a mother of four. She has a sixth-grade education. She testified that she didn’t understand the forms.
Every time you hear a pundit on television telling you that we must pursue “civility” above all, think about Rosa Maria Ortega, sitting in a Texas prison, because she voted, and because some minor paperwork error allowed her to do so. Then think about her four children, whose mother is now incarcerated... Think about where justice lies in the United States of America.